Recent break/booze cruise....

The restaurant in Maroilles is still excellent.

Even though I was in the car, the Vosges is fucking brilliant!

Hotel Au Reisling in Zellenberg is excellent. Very popular and deservedly
so. The local (Zellenberg) wines are excellent.
Had a great after dinner natter with one of the locals. We were joined by
madame, later and sat yakking on the terrace, looking out over the plain
of Alsace until we discovered that the staff had all finished and the
other guests had all bedded down.
The view from my room covered the plain and the Vosges mountains - bloody
lovely!

While there, I popped into Ribeauvillé, to buy some wine. I spent a lot of
money and discovered sex in a glass - a 2k3 gewurztraminer vendage
tardive.

A couple of days later, I popped into a Beer shop on the Franco-Belgian
Border and bought an awful lot of beer (considering I was in the car) I
now have crates of Bush, Westmalle Dubbel, Chimay Red and blue, Blanche de
Namur and Leffe Radieuse along with odd packs of Leffe 9°, Leffe Vieille
Cuvee, several varieties of geuze and shedloads of other stuff.
This place is cheaper than the supermarkets (both channel and inland) and
has so much variety I spent a good couple of hours mooching about.

The place is run by a wonderful bloke, called Noel Cuvelier.

You can find it at:
30 Abelestationsplein, Poperinge
Just off the N38
http://tinyurl.com/k985v

It's about an hour's drive from Calais - well worth a visit.
Just take a van and make garage space.

More will be told to those interested, who appear at Platyfest.

There are pix, too...if I get round to putting them up, somewhere.
--

Cheers!
Fr Jack

B12S POTENTIAL LICENCE SHREDDER - AT GRIN FACTOR 10!

FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM

 

Did you do the 'Grand Ballon' ?

Bad memories of the Vosges for me. Had a car broken in to on a car park
in the mountains not far from Dabo.

--

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Moto Guzzi Mille GT/Squire RS3 Gilera Nordwest |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Shit happens. People get ripped off everywhere. It's not a Vosges thing.

 

Granted. Just bad luck I suppose. It's just that in 30 years of visiting
France this has been the one and only incident of this nature. Didn't
rate the bratwurst/saurkraut regional nosh speciality much either. Give
me a confit or a cassoulet in preference any day.
--

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Moto Guzzi Mille GT/Squire RS3 Gilera Nordwest |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Probably, I was a bit off track because the bloody tunnel was shut........

I was too busy hustling the Accord round some mad tight bends to GAF about
which hill, road or town, really - I just headed in roughly the right
direction - then gave up and turned the satnav on - I needed my hotel
room, a shower and an hours kip.

I am definitely going back there on 2 wheels.
--

Cheers!
Fr Jack

B12S POTENTIAL LICENCE SHREDDER - AT GRIN FACTOR 10!

FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM

 

Hello. Need any help?

On a more serious note, what's the Leffe 9 and Vieille Cuvee? I
recognise the first two from Le Trappiste - good luck with the bush. <g>

Sounds like you enjoyed yourself. I'll have to find some
recommendations on what to bring back from the wilds of scrumpy-land.

 

And if you need a place to stay, feel free, I'm about 30 minutes (my speed)
from the Belgian border..

 

For me, scrumpy-land = Devon. Unless there's been some spectacular
tectonic activity I think there's been a misunderstanding.

Noted for a Belgian beer run though.

 

Haven't you heard the news?

Ok

 

Odd that, 'cos Scrumpy is probably more a somerset thing than devon; at
least IME.

Of course the midlanders will kick up about Shropshire and Worstershire
now...

 

As if. Ever been to the 'Cider House' at Quatt? Cider/Perry licence only
for yonks.


--

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Moto Guzzi Mille GT/Squire RS3 Gilera Nordwest |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Heh. Last couple of Glastos I was at in the early 80s there was a farmer
turned up with a tractor/trailer loaded up with gallon containers of
rough cider - made a mint, he did.

 

WGAF? It's only the south.

 

I remember Glastonbury in.. 1982, it was a wet year and there was plenty
of cider in evidence. My abiding memories are:

1. Waking up in a collapsed 'tent' made of two bikes and a tarpaulin
hearing someone screaming. The wet ground had shifted, my bike had
toppled over and landed on someone..

2. Seeing a bloke crashed out at dawn, half buried in the mud, clutching
a plastic container of cider.

Heh. Miserable days.

 

Sliding down the hill on my arse in a wave of liquid mud, then laughing
at the ones who were trying to walk across the slope and going arse over
tit.

Standing in a queue for the drinking water then watching a bloke use the
the drinking water to wash his fucking boots. He was fetched a slap by a
passer by.

The veggyburger van... utterly fantastically huge burgers with no cow in
them and tasty as ****. I kept going back for more - until they ran out.
Mind you, what ran out of my bottom the next day wasn't so fantastic.

Wandering around taking atmospheric shots of all sorts of stuff - lost
now, like piss in the wind.

Ducking into a couple of marquees inhabited by New Age cultist wankers
on the pull and having to leave before I burst out laughing.

Selling Californian Sunshine blotters.

That was me.

Glastonbury was supposed to be about the music, but I simply cannot
recall who was playing on any occasion.

 

Should have gone the year before.

Blistering heat. Guys coming round with trays of hash cakes. Sleeping out
under the stars with a girl whose name I can't remember. Hawkwind with
lasers. Gong (I think). Rubik cubes.

Every day is a miserable day when you're miserable.

 

Was too young then.

Thanks for that, Mr Murray, that was kind of my point.

 

Apparently, when I was a toddler, I ate some hashish that father brought
back from WWII Port Said [1]. Hospital and stomach pump emergency
ensued. From then on our dour Scottish GP used to call me 'Hashish
Harry'. Never been the same since possibly.

[1] By some miracle I resisted the temptation to also try out the
service revolver and live ammo he brought back and hid (unsuccessfully)
at the bottom of an old blanket box.


--

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Moto Guzzi Mille GT/Squire RS3 Gilera Nordwest |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

It's at the extreme southern end of the Vosges, not far from Mulhouse.
About 45 minutes from my house, so one of my regular Sunday run roads.

I keep telling people...

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Aye, t'aint half bad, is it? Sorry we weren't around, but sailing in
the Aegean was, on balance, better than waiting at home for you to pop
round.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`